AthenaMM Stays Strong

[AthenaMM]

Glad you are feeling better. I think one of the hardest things with the one handed is the grip. I did get  a block of chalk to rub on my hands to help. Really don't want one to go flying out of my hands.  I also do farmer carries with the bells as a good way to strengthen my grip.The hangs should help with your grip too.

I've definitely noticed my weak grip on the hangs. I honestly think my grip is the limiting factor on my hangs.

 

I'm glad you're feeling better. It can be hard to put in a decent effort when you're feeling puny. On the pull-ups: IMO, any progress is to be celebrated. A pull-up bar is on my list of equipment to buy, but I need to shed some weight before I torture my old shoulders like that.

 

I actually prefer 1 handed swings, but with lighter weight, of course. Before S&S, I followed along with Andrea DuCane or Tracy Reifkind's videos. Tracy has a great idea for hand care and blister prevention that I have used: sock sleeves.

 

http://tracysfoodandthought.blogspot.com/2013/12/sock-sleeves-gloves-hand-care-over-hump.html

I like the sock sleeves! I may have to try those out.

 

Way to keep working out in the midst of not feeling well.

Thanks Tank! I noticed you were having some allergy issues as well. Now that it's warmed up, mine are a lot better.

[AthenaMM]

Day 21 - Sunday, January 24, 2016

 

Quest 1: Kettlebell rest day

 

Quest 2: A rest day for this as well

 

Quest 3: I was actually a tiny bit more active than I usually am on Sunday and finished with 4,623.

 

Life Quest: Didn't read any of the NF book today

 

Nothing in the jar and nothing out.

 

I did some crafting this evening that was a lot of fun and reminded me that I need to make time for this sort of thing.

 

Week 3 Summary

 

Quest 1: I did all 5 of my kettlebell workouts. I'm making progress on the TGU's and thinking about adding more sets of swings and/or trying the one handed ones.

 

Quest 2: I worked on either planks, pull-ups or push-ups 6 times this week. I'm finally starting to see a tiny bit of progress with the pull-ups.

 

Quest 3: My average steps for the week was 10,433. This quest is going better than I expected. I've always "tried" to average 10,000 steps (or whatever my step goal is) every week, but I've never been very consistent with it. Apparently I wasn't actually trying very hard.

 

Life Quest: I'm about 3/4 of the way through the NerdFitness book, so I'm doing well here.

[AthenaMM]

Day 22 - Monday, January 25, 2016

 

I finally did full weighted TGU's!!!

 

Quest 1: I did a 29 min kettlebell workout.

              3 sets of warm-up - 5 prying goblet squats (8kg), 5 3 sec bridges, 5 halos (8kg).   

              5 sets of 10 two handed swings with 16 kg.  

              3 sets of full TGU's on each side with 8kg. I did better on one side than the other. On the weak side, I almost lost it the first time I tried to stand up, but I managed to stabilize. I did better after that and realized that my kneeling stance was wider on the "good" side than the bad. After I adjusted that, it was closer but there was still a noticeable difference.

              1 set of 2/3 TGU on each side with 8kg. I'd intended to do as many sets of full TGU's as I could and then do however many 2/3 TGU's as I needed to equal 5 sets but my forearms were crying by the time I got to these.

              S&S Stretches

 

Quest 2: I worked on pull-ups today for 5 min. I did hangs and attempted the assisted again. I was really hoping I would be able to complete one, but I wasn't

 

Quest 3: I have over 10,000 steps today. Not much extra, so I'll need to make this up later in the week. I finished the day with 10,429 steps.

 

Life Quest: Didn't read any today.

 

I put $2 in the jar today and didn't take any out.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good job on the TGU's! It's great to see you getting your 10k steps with minimal effort as well.

[Elastigirl]

Congrats on the full TGUS. I haven't paid attention to how wide my stance was while kneeling, I'll pay more attention. My weak sides seem to change, which makes me suspect that it is a lot to do with my form as much as strength.

[AthenaMM]

Good job on the TGU's! It's great to see you getting your 10k steps with minimal effort as well.

Thanks, Tank! It's nice when you realize that something that was hard before isn't so hard anymore.

 

Congrats on the full TGUS. I haven't paid attention to how wide my stance was while kneeling, I'll pay more attention. My weak sides seem to change, which makes me suspect that it is a lot to do with my form as much as strength.

My weak side has also changed a couple of times, so I think it is mostly form in my case as well. However, I'm always weaker on the "stand up" portion on that one side and I'd noticed that I always had to adjust my leg after kneeling on the way down every time. I think I've always had a narrower stance on that side when I'm kneeling. Don't know why, but it seems pretty consistent.

[AthenaMM]

Day 23 - Tuesday, January 26, 2016

 

Quest 1: I did a 32 min kettlebell workout. 

              3 sets of warm-up - 5 prying goblet squats (8kg), 5 3 sec bridges, 5 halos (8kg).   

              5 sets of 10 two handed swings with 16 kg.  I'm resting less between these now. My fitbit has gotten wonky with my heartrate so I'm walking around and taking 10 deep breaths and then doing the next set.

              4 sets of full TGU's on each side with 8kg. These went much better today, so I added another set. My forearms were still very unhappy by the end, but not as bad as yesterday. 

              1 set of 2/3 TGU on each side with 8kg.

              S&S Stretches

 

Quest 2: I worked on push-ups today for 5 min. I did 4 sets of 10 incline push-ups but didn't attempt any floor ones.

 

Quest 3: I got 10,671 steps. Still not much extra, so I'll have to work on this.

 

Life Quest: Read more of the NF book today.

 

I put $2 in the jar today and didn't take any out.

 

Day 24 - Wednesday, January 27, 2016

 

Quest 1: I did a 38 min kettlebell workout. Now that I'm doing full weighted TGU's I've decided it's time to work on the one handed swings. So far it's not going very well though.

              3 sets of warm-up - 5 prying goblet squats (8kg), 5 3 sec bridges, 5 halos (8kg).   

              1.5 sets of 10 one handed swings with 8kg. I reread that part of S&S and watched some videos to get a better handle on these. My right arm did okay, but I'm having a real problem with my left. When I tried them out the other day with the 16kg I tweaked something in my elbow on my left arm and it was still a problem today. I haven't felt any pain in it except when I'm trying to do a one handed swing though. I fractured that arm right at the inside bend of the elbow when I was a kid and it doesn't extend out as far as the other one does. I'm not sure if that is what's causing the problem or not, but the pain is similar to pain I used to get in that arm for several years after it was broken any time I over used it.       

              4 sets of 10 two handed swings with 16 kg.  Every now and then I'd feel a small twinge in that elbow on the "hike back" but it was rare and very small.

              I did a lot of unweighted "one handed swings" with both arms trying to get the motion right. I'm probably going to give it about a week before I try it with weight again to give the elbow time to heal, but I'm going to work on the motion at least

              4 sets of full TGU's on each side with 8kg. These were a little tougher today than yesterday, but still better than Monday.

              1 set of 2/3 TGU on each side with 8kg. 

              S&S Stretches

 

Quest 2: I worked on pull-ups today for 5 min. I stuck with hangs. My grip needs some serious work, so for now I'm going to work on increasing my hang time.

 

Quest 3: I have over 13,000 steps today. I made a point of getting extra today. If I get about this on another day (or split between a couple of days) I'll be set. I have a spreadsheet that I'm keeping track of everything in. I've prefilled the steps portion with 10,000 steps on all the days except Sundays and with 3,500 steps on the Sundays. That way when it calculates the average, I have a good idea of how many more I need for the week. I've decided that's going to be how I handle the short last week of the challenge. As long as I have enough steps that I'll average over 10,000 for the week with 10,000 steps for Saturday and 3,500 steps for Sunday, I've completed the quest. I finished the day with 13,574 steps.

 

Life Quest: I finished the NerdFitness book today, so I completed this quest!

 

I put $2 in the jar today and didn't take any out.

[peelout]

Sounds like you are accumulating quite a stash of loot.

[AthenaMM]

Sounds like you are accumulating quite a stash of loot.

Definitely! At this point I have to cram the money in there and it's sticking out of the top some. I'm purposely not counting or trying to figure out how much is in there until the challenge is over. 

[AthenaMM]

Day 25 - Thursday, January 28, 2016

 

Quest 1: This was a kettlebell rest day. My left elbow is a little sore today. I'm hoping it will be normal tomorrow.

 

Quest 2: I worked on pull-ups today for 5 min. I did hangs again, though I combined it with the mini-challenge and did hanging leg raises and hanging knee raises. The length of time I could hang was definitely the limiting factor for those.

 

Quest 3: I have over 11,000 steps today. I'll probably get more though, because I still have some stuff to do.

 

Life Quest: Even though I've completed this quest I read some of "The 4% Universe" today. I want this to be something I do all year, not just for this challenge, so I'm continuing on. I'm enjoying my lunch time more and it seems longer now that I'm not wasting time on my tablet.

 

I put $1 in the jar today and didn't take any out.

[AthenaMM]

Day 26 - Friday, January 29, 2016

 

Quest 1: I did a 29 min kettlebell workout. My elbow is sore today, so I stuck with the usual and didn't do anything extra.

              3 sets of warm-up - 5 prying goblet squats (8kg), 5 3 sec bridges, 5 halos (8kg).   

              5 sets of 10 two handed swings with 16 kg.  I was very careful here, and it didn't seem to make my elbow hurt (for the most part).

              4 sets of full TGU's on each side with 8kg. These went well. The movements are getting smoother, but there seems to be at least once in every session where I bobble it a little.

              1 set of 2/3 TGU on each side with 8kg. 

              S&S Stretches

 

Quest 2: I worked on push-ups today for 5 min. 4 sets of 10 incline push-ups again.

 

Quest 3: I got 11,395 steps.

 

Life Quest: No reading today, but I've already completed this quest.

 

I put $2 in the jar today, but I REALLY needed chocolate so I took $2 out.

 

Week 4 Summary

 

Quest 1: I did 4 kettlebell workouts this week. Since the challenge ended on Friday, that's the correct amount for this week. I made some TGU progress and started experimenting with one handed swings.

 

Quest 2: I worked on either planks, pull-ups or push-ups 5 times this week. Since the challenge ended on Friday, that's the correct amount for this week as well. I started keeping track of exactly what I was doing during these so I can actually tell when I'm making progress.

 

Quest 3: My average steps for the week was 10,201 with the assumption that I'll get 10,000 tomorrow and 3,500 on Sunday.

 

Life Quest: I finished the NerdFitness book so this quest is complete.

[AthenaMM]

Challenge Summary

 

Quest 1: I did 5 kettlebell workouts the first 3 weeks and 4 in the last week. When I was creating the challenge I forgot to adjust for the shortened final week, but since I didn't miss any workouts (other than the last one because of the shortened week) I still reached the original goal of 19-20 kettlebell workouts. So I got an A for this quest.

 

I'm still enjoying my kettlebell workouts and I'm pretty pleased with my progress. The one-handed swings aren't going well at the moment, but hopefully once my elbow is doing better, I'll make progress there as well.

 

Quest 2: I worked on push-ups, pull-ups or planks 6 days in the first 3 weeks and 5 days in the last week. Again I forgot to adjust for the shortened final week, but again I didn't miss any before the shortened week so it didn't matter. My original goal was 23-24 days and I did 23 days. So this quest is also an A.

 

I realized in the last week that I really needed to be keeping track of exactly what I'm doing for this so I know when I'm making progress. I think that will help.

 

Quest 3: This is the only challenge where I remembered that I needed to account for a shortened final week. I averaged 10,000 steps each of the 4 weeks, so this quest is an A.

 

I was really pleased with how this one went. Apparently I just needed some accountability here.

 

Life Quest: I finished the NerdFitness book and read some of The 4% Universe. This quest is also an A.

 

This was fun and I liked not wasting time on my tablet during lunch.

 

I forgot that I was supposed to be putting $7 in the jar for every week that I averaged 10,000 steps so I added $28 to the jar. That brought the total in the jar up to $59. The savings/penalty jar only has $11 in it.

 

I like using the jar as a way to make me more mindful of splurges. I'm a terrible two year old if I tell myself I can't have certain foods. This way nothing is off limits, but it makes me stop and think about whether the splurge is worth it.

 

 

I haven't completely decided on my next challenge yet, but it will probably be a repeat of this one for the most part. I mentioned in one of peelout's threads that my habits/routines have been off and it's making things difficult. My husband's schedule changed at the first of the year on top of the fact that I made some changes to my routine a couple of weeks before Christmas. For the last week I've been concentrating on sticking with a routine and it's helped a lot. It's not a habit yet though and I don't want add any more new things until it is.

[Elastigirl]

Great challenge.  What are you going to do with the money? Glad you found a system that works for you. 

Take it easy with the elbow. Not sure if it does for you or not, but pull ups can bother my elbow if it is sore.

[AthenaMM]

Great challenge.  What are you going to do with the money? Glad you found a system that works for you. 

Take it easy with the elbow. Not sure if it does for you or not, but pull ups can bother my elbow if it is sore.

I've started looking for cool exercise classes around here. I'm either going to use it for that or for the archery lessons I was supposed to do last year. My elbow is still sore today and I did end up needing to stop with the pull-up work too. I took Saturday and Sunday off in hopes that would be enough, but it's still bothering me a little. It's not bad, but I don't want it to get bad either. Some of it just seems like stiffness that needs to be worked out, but there is pain if I hold one of the KB's in that hand.

[peelout]

Archery sounds cool but seems like it would take a lot practice.

[AthenaMM]

Archery sounds cool but seems like it would take a lot practice.

Probably, but it would still be fun. I'm not planning on competing, just acquiring a new, fun skill and stretching my comfort zone.

[Rebe_J]

Probably, but it would still be fun. I'm not planning on competing, just acquiring a new, fun skill and stretching my comfort zone.

 

I like the idea of finding "fun" classes and archery would be something I think I'd like to learn.  

 

In my area, there's a fencing school. I keep peeking at their class schedule and thinking it looks like fun....and a decent cardio workout, too.

[AthenaMM]

I like the idea of finding "fun" classes and archery would be something I think I'd like to learn.  

 

In my area, there's a fencing school. I keep peeking at their class schedule and thinking it looks like fun....and a decent cardio workout, too.

That does sound like fun!